Top 10 Highest Paid NBA players Drafted in the Second Round
Published by John Gardella 03.23.14

Willis Reed was drafted in the second round of the NBA Draft. So were Alex English and Dennis Johnson. Ditto Bill Sharman and Tiny Archibald. Each of the aforementioned players is in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Heck, Sharman got in twice – first as a player and then as a coach.

So, while they all technically lasted until the second round of their respective NBA Drafts, they really weren’t second round-type talents. But don’t blame the scouts; they weren’t at fault. Rather, these legends played during the NBA’s pre-expansion era. Reed was selected with the 10th pick (in today’s NBA’s, a Lottery selection) in 1964; English went 23rd and Johnson 29th in 1976; Sharman went 17th in 1950; and Archibald went 17th in 1970.

Today, the NBA is a league of 30 teams split into six divisions. The NBA Draft has been cut to two rounds, and in drafts in which all 30 teams have retained a first-round pick, a player doesn’t get the second-round label – and far less guaranteed money than his first-round brethren – until pick 31. So, when a future Hall of Famer like Manu Ginobili has to hear 56 names called before his … yeah, you can blame 29 team scouting departments for that slight. Other times, however, a player’s true potential remains hidden until he reaches the NBA.

With the global basketball talent pool expanding seemingly exponentially, the NBA is increasingly seeing players that lasted until the second round developing into bona-fide stars. Following are the NBA’s ten best second-round players in order of their 2013-14 salaries.

__________________NO D, NO RING!!!!
With 26 points on 4 of 4 shots from distance in only 20 minutes of PT. Efficient eviceration.
Wolves' fan: ginobili vs. the wolves is like he's just kind of laughing to himself all game...kind of like he thinks it's cute that they're trying to play basketball.[email protected]